PR tools

Nintendo’s “Pokémon Go” now has more users than Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. You may be seeing people walking around as though they’re on autopilot: head down, phone in hand, roaming around your neighborhood. They aren’t texting or posting on social media—they’re trying to catch Pokémon. And people are doing just about anything to “Catch ‘em all.” As a small business, there are ways for you to harness the power of Pokémon Go to increase foot traffic and generate real revenue, not just loiterers.

To start, log in to the Pokémon Go App and see if your business is near a “PokéStop” or “Gym” (see image below) which pop up in the game’s map. A PokéStop allows users to acquire valuable materials to catch the monsters, whereas a Gym is where users go to train their Pokémon or battle others in an arena. The best-case scenario is that your business would be one of these important locations, or very close to one. If not, there are still ways to take advantage of this phenomenon to drive foot traffic to your business.

PokéStop, drop and roll

Predetermined locations were selected by Nintendo to be PokéStops before the launch of the game. These show up on players’ maps as blue cubes (see below). Once you get close enough, the cube turns into a circle for users to collect useful items players need to be successful in the game. This draws players from all over the local area, and if your business is close to one, be sure to promote that on your social channels.

Players are drawn to these stops and the surrounding area because they offer the chance to not only catch new Pokémon but also get their hands on rare in-game items, such as Pokéballs, potions, eggs and more.

Lure Modules? Lure Customers.

A lure module attracts Pokémon to a Pokéstop for 30 minutes. In that time, everyone in that direct area can benefit from the effects. If your business is located near a Pokéstop, you can (and should) set off a “lure module.” It turns the regular Pokéstop into a hub of activity and encourages crowds of people to come closer.

You might think that since lure modules cost money, you should shy away, but it’s very affordable. With $100 netting you 14,500 Pokecoins and an eight-pack of Lures costing 680 Pokecoins:

14,500 Pokecoins / 680 = 21 eight-packs of lures

(21 * 8)/2 = 84 hours

$100/84 hours = $1.19 per hour

So for $1.19 an hour, your business could double its business and draw a new audience you might not even know you had. The Lures can only be set off at a PokéStop, so choose your spot wisely. Here’s how to place one easily.

Host a PokéHunt

You’ve heard of bar crawls, and this idea is similar. There is an item in Pokémon Go that allows you to “hatch eggs.” And the only way to do so is to walk a certain amount of kilometers (and no you can’t cheat by driving, unfortunately). The average egg takes about three miles (5 km) of walking to hatch. You can encourage the group by saying whoever catches the rarest Pokémon or hatches the most eggs gets a free item that your business offers (i.e. sandwich, t-shirt or future service). Below are good steps to take to create one.

Create a Facebook event publicizing the hunt and invite all your friends, and encourage others to share it.

Write down where all the PokéStops are in within a three-mile radius of your business.

On the day of your event, set off a Lure Module 30 minutes before the start time.

Give everyone your “map of stops” to take.

Tell the group that the person who catches the rarest Pokémon or hatches the most eggs will win a prize at the end.

The event should last about two hours.

At the end set off another Lure Module at your business, hand out prizes and discuss with customers the Pokémon that they caught.

During the time that the lure modules are live, users will want to hang around in that vicinity to catch rare Pokémon. They’ll also need something to do – like buy/use your products.

Primary color war

Once players reach Level 5 they are asked to join a team: Team Instinct (yellow), Team Mystic (blue), or Team Valor (red). Players compete on behalf of their team when they go to battle. The allegiance is strong within the teams and could be a good way to offer a discount for a certain team at different times throughout the day. You could, for example, have flash sales in which a certain team receives 30 percent off their purchase for a short period of time. All the customer/Pokémon hunter needs to do is show the cashier their Pokémon Go profile to prove they’re a member.

Some online stores are even creating “badges” for each team. Buying a bundle of badges and having them at checkout is just another way of letting your customers know you appreciate their Pokémon hunting, and they’ll be much more likely to stop by again.

Show us your Snorlax

Rare Pokémon are hard to spot, let alone catch in the game. Offering perks to players who tag and share a photo of the rare Pokémon they find in your area is a great way to drive increased traffic. Charizard, Snorlax, and Wigglytuff are among the “epic” monsters in the game – and people will go far out of their way to snatch one up.

For many companies, there’s no better feeling than seeing positive media coverage about your brand. Not only is it a powerful way to build credibility and raise awareness, but it’s also a great way to further your business objectives. That is, if you know which elements you should value and measure.

While some PR agencies use publicity value as the be-all, end-all factor in determining the value of PR, we try to stay away from this as much as possible. Why? There are two main reasons. For one, the way that agencies arrive at this number is nebulous at best. Secondly, we’re much more concerned with the actual business results driven by PR versus an ambiguous publicity value that doesn’t tell us any key sales metrics, such as the number of leads produced or sales closed as a result of the media placement.

With this in mind, here are four factors you should always consider when measuring the effectiveness of your PR campaign.

Calculate share of voice beyond just your competitors

We measure results not only by the volume of media coverage, but also through the share of voice relative to both competitors and keywords. Understanding how often your brand is mentioned compared to your competitors is important to track over time in order to gauge the success of your PR efforts. Keyword share of voice shows how your brand has (or has not) earned its place among a certain set of keywords or topics relevant to their product.

Evaluate the quality of media placements

Another metric that can be taken into account for PR measurement is the quality of a media placement. When gauging the quality of each story, we look at a variety of factors, including whether a brand spokesman is quoted, if a link to the website is provided, if the story is a more in-depth profile versus a brief mention in a story, whether the sentiment is positive, negative or neutral, and if the outlet has shared the story on social media.

Is it influencing business results?

We also evaluate which types of media placements drive the best business results for our clients. Especially for b-to-b companies, there are many instances when a placement in a specialized trade publication can be far more impactful than a top-tier national media outlet. By analyzing our clients’ Google Analytics, we can determine which media placements drive the most qualified sales leads.

In fact, when recently doing just that for a b-to-c client, we discovered that the top referral source to its website was not The Today Show, Good Morning America or one of the other top national media hits we obtained for them. Instead, it was a very niche website with a much smaller audience that generated the most traffic to their website. Sure, the bigger marquee pieces of media coverage are phenomenal to have from an exposure and credibility standpoint, but ultimately the smaller, more targeted media outlets may result in better business outcomes.

When evaluating the traffic our PR efforts are driving for clients, we’re also looking to Google Analytics to determine if it’s high quality traffic. If our PR is effective, we should be seeing the bounce rate decrease, while pages per session and time spent on the website increase.

Track the behavior of sales prospects

Website user behavior also offers a trove of information for measuring PR efforts. For example, you can track behaviors such as how many people downloaded a content item (such as a whitepaper) and how many of these downloads turn into a sale. This tells you if the leads that you’re bringing to your brand’s website using a PR tactic are qualified leads that have a substantial impact on the bottom line.

Above all else, we stress to clients that PR is a sales function – rather than an extension of marketing. We’re distributing content and information about their brand that needs to have a measurable sales impact, not just regurgitate marketing messaging.

Would you like us to conduct an audit of your current PR results? If you’d like help in determining the effectiveness of your current PR campaign, give us a shout here.

Techopedia defines SMA as “the approach of collecting data from social media sites and blogs and evaluating that data to make business decisions.” In short, SMA tools are designed to help analyze and improve overall social performance. It’s no secret that these tools are crucial within social business organizations.

Social Media Today is a premier resource in the social media world, and they’ve written about nine solid SMA tool recommendations we wanted to share with our audience. There are a variety of options provided to make the decision-making and research process easier for you. The list isn’t in any particular order and, best of all, every tool listed is free:

These days, it’s not just enough to have a presence on social media. It’s about making that presence on social media count. Let us put together a custom social strategy for your business. Request a Consultation with Dittoe today.

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About Us

Dittoe PR has grown to include an impressive roster of clients in many industries, including consumer electronics, retail, education, healthcare, gaming, financial services, consumer gadgets and toys. We've helped our clients gain a variety of exposure in many different publications, including the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Wired Magazine, Good Morning America, Fortune, Engadget, Ellen, Inc, Business Week, TechCrunch, Mashable and more...